Historic Highways of America Volume I Part 4

BALTIMORE COUNTY, Ma.s.sACHUSETTS: Old Indian trail in same county, leading from the rocks of Deer Creek (Hartford county) to an ancient settlement near Sweet Air.[85]

LICKING COUNTY, OHIO: Work on Colton's place on Newark and Flint Ridge road--a conical hill which has had a roadway "cut entirely around it; the dirt is thrown up the hill, leaving a level track with a wall on the upper side." Two miles and a half northeast of Amsterdam.

WEST VIRGINIA: Indian trail from Grave Creek mound to the lakes, pa.s.sing over Flint Ridge.[86]

PIKE COUNTY, OHIO: Ancient works at Piketon, consisting of parallel walls, graded way and mounds.[87]

It is not, however, on this slight evidence of local roadways that one would wish to base belief that the early Indians opened the first land highways in America. It is possible that they had great, graded roads near their towns and no roads elsewhere, but it is hardly conceivable.

We have seen that the mound-building Indians occupied, in many instances, the heads of the lesser streams, and the argument in favor of their having opened the first land highways has been based on this interior situation which, unless the lesson of history in this case tends to false reasoning, necessitated landward routes of travel.

There is, fortunately, one last piece of evidence which will more than make up for any lack of conclusiveness which may be laid to the charge of the preceding arguments.

CHAPTER V

WATERSHED MIGRATIONS

A few descriptions of the local roadways of the mound-building Indians have been cited; reasons for believing that they used the watersheds, to a greater or less degree, as highways for pa.s.sage from one part of the country to another, have been described. Let us look at the matter of their migrations.

That these people did migrate there is no doubt among archaeologists. The many kinds of archaelogical remains now found indicate that they were divided into many different tribes, and the great distances between works of similar character show that the various tribes labored at divers times in divers places. "The longest stretch where those apparently the works of one people are found on one bank [of the Mississippi river] is from Dubuque, Iowa, to the mouth of Des Moines river. As we move up and down [the Mississippi] we find repeated changes from one type to another."[88]

The direction from which these mound-builders entered the regions where their works are found, and their migrations within this region, must be decided by a careful study of the varying character of the mounds and a cla.s.sification of them.

This work has not been done, save in the most general way possible, though one highly important conclusion has been definitely reached. It is that the generally received opinion heretofore held by archaeologists that the lines of migration were along the princ.i.p.al water-courses is not found to be correct, and that these lines of migration were _across_ the larger water-courses, such as the Mississippi, rather than _up and down_ them.[89]

"One somewhat singular feature is found in the lines of former occupancy indicated by the archaeological remains. The chief one is that reaching from New York through Ohio along the Ohio river and onward in the same direction to the northeastern corner of Texas; another follows the Mississippi river; another extends from the region of the Wabash to the headwaters of the Savannah river, and another across southern Michigan and southern Wisconsin. The inference, however, which might be drawn from this fact--that these lines indicate routes of migration--is not to be taken for granted. It is shown by the explorations of the Bureau, and a careful study of the different types of mounds and other works, that the generally received opinion that the lines of migration of the authors of these works were always along the princ.i.p.al water-courses, cannot be accepted as entirely correct. Although the banks of the Mississippi are lined with prehistoric monuments from Lake Pepin to the mouth of Red river, showing that this was a favorite section for the ancient inhabitants, the study of these remains does not give support to the theory that this great water highway was a line of migration during the mound-building period, except for short distances. It was, no doubt, a highway for traffic and war parties, but the movements of tribes were across it rather than up and down it. This is not a.s.serted as a mere theory or simple deduction, but as a fact proved by the mounds themselves, whatever may be the theory in regard to their origin or uses."[90]

It is for future scholarship to point out to us the origin, movements, and destiny of this earliest race after a careful comparative study of the remains which contain all we know of them. But may we not believe that the great watersheds were to them what they have been for every other race which has occupied this land? We submit: the greater watersheds should be carefully considered in connection with the study and cla.s.sification of the various kinds of prehistoric remains with a view to solving the question of the movements of the mound-building Indians in America. The purpose of the first part of this monograph has been accomplished by pointing out some reasons for the belief that these early people opened the first landward pa.s.sage-ways of the continent on these watersheds. These may be summed up as follows:

(1). The mound-building Indians, like the later Indians, were partial to interior locations; some of their greatest forts and most remarkable mounds are found beside our smaller streams.

(2). These works are scattered widely over such regions; if there was any communication it must have been on the watersheds, land travel here always having been most expeditious and practicable through all historic times.

(3). They were acquainted with some of our most famous mountain pa.s.ses, showing that they were not ignorant of the law of least resistance; and, to a marked degree, their works are found beside, and in general alignment with, our modern roads--which to a great degree followed the ancient routes of the Indians which so invariably obeyed this law.

(4). The comparative study of the mound-building Indians' works proves that the migrations of that race did not follow even the larger streams by which they labored most extensively.

PART II

Paths of the Great Game Animals

("BUFFALO ROADS")

CHAPTER I

INTRODUCTORY

When the first Europeans visited the Central West two sorts of land thoroughfares were found by which the forests could be threaded: paths of the aborigines and paths of the great game animals such as the buffalo. These paths were familiarly known for half a century as Indian Roads and Buffalo Roads. That these two kinds of thoroughfares were easily distinguishable one from the other and that both were ways of common pa.s.sage through the land will be made plain later.

Many varying theories regarding the coming of the buffalo into the central and eastern portions of this continent have been devised, but of one thing we are sure, namely that, among all the relics exhumed from the mounds of the pre-Columbian mound-building Indians, very few bones of the buffalo have been found. Bones of other animals are frequently, even commonly, brought to light, but the remarkable fact remains that almost no buffalo bones are discovered. Considering that the buffalo was the most useful animal possible to aboriginal tribes like those in prehistoric America, there is but one conclusion to be reached, and that is that the mound-building Indians had but little acquaintance with the buffalo.

For this reason it has seemed altogether best to treat the routes of the mound-building Indians first, and the routes of the great game animals, which were known as Buffalo Roads, second--on the theory that the buffalo came into the Central West sometime between the mound-building era and the arrival of the first European explorers.[91]

CHAPTER II

RANGE AND HABITS OF THE BUFFALO

The range of the buffalo or bison in the United States formerly extended from Great Slave Lake on the north to the northeastern provinces of Mexico on the south--from 62 lat.i.tude to 25. Its westward range extended beyond the Rocky mountains and embraced quite a large area, remains having recently been discovered as far west as the Blue mountains in Oregon; farther south, herds roamed over the region occupied by the Great Salt Lake basin and grazed westward as far as the Sierra Nevada mountains. East of the Rocky mountains the feeding-grounds embraced all the area drained by the Ohio river and its tributaries, extending southward beyond the Rio Grande and northward to the Great Lakes as far as the eastern extremity of Lake Erie. The southeastern range probably did not extend beyond the Tennessee river, and only in the upper portions of North and South Carolina did it extend beyond the Alleghanies.

The habitat of the buffalo included feeding-grounds, stamping-grounds, wallows and licks. Their feeding-grounds embraced the meadow valleys where the choicest grazing was to be found.[92] The habit of keeping together in immense herds while feeding soon exhausted the food in any single locality and rendered a slow, constant movement necessary. A herd so immense that it remained in the sight of a traveler for days required a vast area of feeding-ground to sustain it during a season.

When a herd rested to ruminate the buffaloes arranged themselves in a peculiar, characteristic manner--the young always in the center with the mothers, the males forming a compact circle around them. By such a conformation were the "stamping-grounds" made--each animal crowding and pushing from the outside of the herd, where flies and insects were more troublesome, toward the center.

A peculiar custom of the buffalo was "wallowing." In the pools of water the old fathers of the herd lowered themselves on one knee, and with the aid of their horns, soon had an excavation into which the water trickled, forming a cool, muddy bath. From his ablutions each arose, coated with mud, allowing the patient successor to take his turn. Each entered the "wallow," threw himself flat upon his back, and, by means of his feet and horns, violently forced himself around until he was completely immersed. After many buffaloes had thus immersed themselves and, by adhesion, had carried away each his share of the sticky ma.s.s, a hole two feet deep and often twenty feet in diameter was left, and, even to this day, marks the spot of a buffalo wallow. The "delectable laver of mud" soon dried upon the buffalo and left him encased in an impenetrable armor secure from the attacks of insects.

While the actions of a herd of buffaloes were very similar to those of a herd of cattle, yet very dissimilar to the habit of domestic cattle was their propensity to roll upon the ground. Though a bulky, ungraceful animal in appearance, the buffalo rolled himself completely over, apparently with more ease than a horse. A buffalo, by rolling over in this manner, often dusted himself in what was known as a "dry wallow."

The buffaloes' licks, which afforded salt, that mineral so necessary to their health, were the foci of all their roads, the favorite spots about which the herds gyrated and between which they were continually pa.s.sing.

So important were these considered when white men first entered the West that every lick was carefully included in all the maps of the first geographers. Filson's map of Kentucky, for instance, made during the Revolutionary period, contains a large number of circles with dots about them which were the signs of "Salt Springs & Licks," all of them being connected, by trails, "some cleared, others not."

The saline materials of these licks are derived from imprisoned sea-water which has been stored away in the strata below the action of surface waters. When these rocks lie nearer the surface than the line of drainage, the saline materials are leached away. The saline materials increase with the depth until the level is reached where we find the water saturated with the ingredients of old sea-water. The displacement of these imprisoned waters is induced by the sinking of surface water through the vertical interstices of soil and rock, and the natural tendency of the water to restore the hydrostatic balance. This action is much more likely to occur when the rocks above the drainage are limestone or shale with an underlying bed of rock composed of sandstone or other rock through which water may permeate. That such a pressure exists and that some such process is at work is shown by the waters rising ten feet or more above the surface when enclosed in a pipe.

The endurance and speed of the buffalo far exceeded that possessed by domesticated cattle. With a good start a swift horse could only with difficulty overtake a herd of buffaloes. Their gait was an awkward, lumbering gallop, and the speed which they attained was much greater than it appeared to be. When running at full speed, rough ground and an occasional tumble were taken in a matter-of-fact way and seemed scarcely to r.e.t.a.r.d the progress of the herd. If a ravine intersected its trail, the herd dashed down the vertical, rocky sides and on up the opposite slope, resuming its onward rush as if no obstacle had appeared.

The extensive courses of the buffaloes necessitated the crossing of large streams. This often caused a loss of many of the old and young members of the herds, especially if the stream was swift or swollen.

Often, after having successfully battled their way entirely across the stream, a bluff or a miry landing-place beyond proved disastrous.

Buffalo herds boldly crossed rivers on the ice. Large numbers have been known to be drowned, when crowding too closely together, by the breaking of the ice beneath their weight. Herds have even been known to cross upon floating ice, when they fell an easy prey to the Indians, and many were drowned.

The following incident is related by Colonel Dodge: "Late in the summer of 1867 a herd of probably four thousand buffaloes attempted to cross the South Platte near Plum Creek. The river was rapidly subsiding, being nowhere over a foot or two in depth, and the channels in the bed were filled or filling with loose quicksand. The buffaloes in front were hopelessly stuck. Those immediately behind, urged on by the horns and pressure of those yet further in the rear, trampled over their struggling companions to be themselves engulfed in the devouring sand.

This was continued until the bed of the river, nearly half a mile broad, was covered with dead or dying buffaloes. Only a comparative few actually crossed the river, and these were soon driven back by hunters.

It was estimated that considerably more than half the herd, or over two thousand buffaloes, paid for this attempt with their lives."[93]